Not Without You

twenty-nine

Aria

"He's going to call you, Aria," Benn says. "Sit down and have a drink with me and Colson."

I tear my gaze away from the window and glare at the two of them. Colson Waters plays on the same line as Benn; both of them are excellent on the ice and usually wrack up an average of 50 points a season. It's impressive, but right now they're just lounging around like a couple of teenage boys and it's pissing me off. "How dare you tell me to calm down. Leo could be behind bars right now and it makes me feel terrible. I trespassed too!"

"Someone really needs a drink," Colson mutters.

I give Colson my best death stare and I keep my eyes locked with his until he clears his throat and tugs at the collar of his muscle shirt. He looks at Benn. "Your cousin is scary."

Benn takes a sip of his beer. "I told you not to screw with her." He sets his beer down and looks at me. "Leo's gonna be fine, cuz. You guys didn't do anything wrong."

I cock an eyebrow at him. "Except climb a fence with visible signs telling us to not climb the fence and walk on private property."

My cousin and his hockey buddy raise their cans of beer to me. "Except that," they reply in unison.

"Don't you kids have somewhere to be?" I snap, turning back to the window. I slip my hand in the pocket of my sweater and begin to tap my finger against the case of my phone, wishing it would give me a sign. A text. A Facebook message. A message on Instagram. Something. Anything. If Leo has ended up in jail for the night, I'm going to feel extremely awful for not going through it with him.

"She's right," I hear Colson say. "We've got reservations for that bar. The boys will probably kick our asses if we're late."

"You're right." I hear Benn get to his feet and begin to walk in a random direction. Although, I'm beginning to rethink my "random" direction theory when the footsteps get louder and louder. I completely boycott it when I feel Benn's hand rest on my shoulder. "But I don't know if we can leave my cousin here alone. She's an emotional disaster."

I shove my cousin away, playfully, of course. "Go out and celebrate all your little bromances," I say. "I'll be fine."

"Meaning," Benn laughs, clapping me on the shoulder. "You're going to drive over to Leo's place and wait around for him."

I bite my lip. I had originally been planning on doing that when I arrived back at his place from the sprint home, but Tenille assured me that everything would be okay and convinced me to return home. I would have been a lot happier with the decision if Mom and Dad would have been here to comfort me a little, but I quickly learned from Benn that they, along with Aunty Emyln and Uncle Hainsey, had gone out for dinner tonight and wouldn't be back until later. So, here I am, stuck with Benn and Colson while I wait for news on Leo's situation.